Anglo-Spanish Group was set up by Antonio Irastorza, in London, in 1986. The group provides corporate legal advice to clients with interests in Spain and in the United Kingdom, although it also covers the Philippines and the United States of America. In May 2020, Antonio Irastorza joined ZURBARAN ABOGADOS and added his practice and team to work closely with Ángel Zamora and his team.

The Partner heading Anglo-Spanish Group is Antonio Irastorza who is qualified both as a Spanish lawyer and English solicitor. He is assisted in this task by Ángel Zamora, Spanish lawyer (Seville), Ricardo Astorga, Spanish lawyer (Seville) and supported by a technical team formed by Pablo Páez (Madrid) and John Devlin (London).

Anglo-Spanish Group works closely with the various departments at ZURBARAN ABOGADOS enabling us to work when a knowledge of a Spanish based civil legal system, business practices or language is needed.

Antonio has experience leading such groups within other law firms in the City of London. He is confident that joining different mindsets can create an enriching approach to business. His pragmatic approach allows him to identify business opportunities, which under the right management can generate new transactions, (commonly known in the business as “rain-making”).

Team

Ángel Zamora (Madrid)

• Ángel Zamora, graduated in Law at University of Navarre (1993-1997), and then completed the Diploma of Advanced Studies for Research in Universidad de Sevilla (1997-1999).
• Admitted to the Bar Associations of Seville and Madrid.
• General Management Program “Programa de Dirección General” (PDG) by IESE Business School (2007).
• Expert in Town Planning and Real Estate developments for Instituto de Práctica Empresarial.
• Professor of Commercial Law in the Master courses of Universidad de Navarra Law School.
• Member of the Arbitration Court of the Bar Association of Madrid in the following specialisms: Real Estate, Contracts, Corporate law and Energy law.
• Mr. Zamora has assisted national and multinational companies in relation to multiple sectors. He has exceptional technical expertise in Bankruptcy and Insolvency law, in Bank law, in Renewable Energies and Real Estate.
• He has been of counsel to Banco Popular Español from 1999 to 2009. Currently, he is an external advisor for some of the main Spanish renewable energy companies.

Antonio Irastorza (London)

• Antonio Irastorza graduated in Law at University of Navarre
• Spanish Lawyer and English Solicitor (Law Society of England & Wales).
• Advanced Management Programme in IESE Business School.
• His professional career has developed internationally from London since 1985. He has been as a Partner in Boodle Hatfield, Denton Hall and Masons – all three leading British law firms in the City of London.
• He founded Tigrus Group in 2005, as a private equity business, managing investments in several sectors of Eastern Europe.
• He now advises the Board of Directors of several national and international companies on legal and business matters.
• As the London Partner of ZURBARÁN (Abogados), he is representing their clients’ business expansion in international markets.
• From his base in the City of London, he is also introducing several experienced sector specialists to ZURBARÁN, drawing on trusted connections he has established and fostered during his extensive legal career as an international lawyer and negotiator.

Pablo Páez (Madrid)

• Industrial Engineer (University of Navarre, 1996) and PMD (2011) at IESE.
• Pablo Paéz has 25 years of experience, 18 of them at senior management level in leading companies.
• Pablo adopts a very pragmatic approach to projects. He has been responsible for managing large capacities to design and implement strategies and develop singular projects.
• More recently, he was responsible for procurement at Hipercor. During his career at Ahold, he implemented the expansion strategy for the hypermarkets and acquisition of supermarkets chains.
• When Pablo was with PwC, he was very successful in multinational projects (Nestlé, Schering-Plough, Opel, Repsol, Cadbury, Unilever), dealing with various international teams (Germany, USA, England, Switzerland).
• International experience: Switzerland, Germany.

John Devlin (London)

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Masters in Communications Engineering and PhD in Semiconductors. Post-doc at Cornell University sponsored by the US Navy. Holds an MBA from Nottingham University.
• He has published more than 40 technical articles and given invited conference presentations. John Devlin is named coinventor on 5 patents and co-authored a book on Optical Communications.
• He has constructed geostationary satellites for maritime communications, developed optical fibre lasers, and led on Internet data centre design & construction.
• He guided the Board of British Telecommunications on critical technical issues affecting its Corporate Strategy. Since 2007, he has assisted medium-sized clients in their international expansion.

Ricardo Astorga (Seville)

• Ricardo Astorga graduated as a lawyer from University of Seville (1987-1992) where specialized in Company law.
• Admitted to the bar of Seville in 1992.
• Lecturer in Master in Coorporate Legal Management by Instituto de Estudios Cajasol since 1992-1993.
• Mr. Astorga started his career in the legal profession in 1993, when he joined the firm Olivencia – Ballester and would become a partner.
• Associate Professor of Commercial Law at University of Seville (Law School), since 1993.
• Director of the Master in Coorporate Legal Management by Instituto de Estudios Cajasol.
• Professor in the Master in Law by University of Seville (Law School).
• Professor in the LLM in Commercial, Tax and Labour Legal Consulting by University of Seville.
• Speaker in several conferences and seminars related to Corporate and Bankruptcy law.
• Mr. Astorga is also an author of several publications on Commercial law, in specialized legal magazines.